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UPDATE: Fan-Made King's Quest Sequel Killed
Update: The Silver Lining is still dead, but if you feel strongly about the project, there are a few avenues available to make your voice heard. There's no guarantee that the fan community can change Activision's mind, though a similar movement helped sway Vivendi a few years back. Never hurts to try. Here are the online groups you can look into:
Original Story:
After eight years of hard work from fans, Activision has forced Phoenix Online Studios to stop production on The Silver Lining, an unofficial sequel in the King's Quest series.
This isn't the first time the game has encountered legal trouble. In 2005, then-owner of the King's Quest rights Vivendi Universal issued a cease & desist order in regards to the game (which once was then called King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining). However, the studio and the publisher worked out an arrangement whereby development on the game could continue under the title The Silver Lining. Sadly, when Vivendi merged with Activision, this agreement apparently didn't carry over. The explanation on The Silver Lining's official page reads:
"[O]wnership of the Sierra IP changed hands and became the property of Activision. After talks and negotiations in the last few months between ourselves and Activision, they have reached the decision that they are not interested in granting a non-commercial license to The Silver Lining, and have asked that we cease production and take down all related materials on our website."
As a fan of the series myself, I was looking forward to Phoenix's upcoming title. At the time the project was shut down, the first of five episodic releases had already been finished and submitted for review, with a target release of this Spring.
I'm sure there are legal intricacies here that I don't understand, but this seems like a dirty move on Activision's part. Yes, it is within the publisher's rights as the owners of the King's Quest IP, but The Silver Lining was an exceptionally professional fan project, likely to bolster the franchise rather than dilute it. The KQ brand isn't doing any good locked away in a dark closet; where is the harm in letting the old-school adventure fans head back to Daventry one last time?
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